The political economy of Beni-Lubero

This chapter sketches the evolution of economic control patterns in the territory of Beni- Lubero (North Kivu). This region has been known for decades for its dynamic informal economic development. During the Mobutu era, the Nande’s1 involvement in informal transborder commerce served both as an economic fence against patrimonialist state interference, and as an alternative survival strategy for food insecure farmers. To some extent, this informal economic development also provided a platform for socio-economic redistribution: towards the end of the 1980s, profits from regional trade started to trickle down to other sectors, while livelihoods conditions were improved through their activities in informal transborder trade. At the same time, however, the ‘reciprocal assimilation’ between local political and economic elites prevented the emergence of an economic counterforce that was capable of reversing this mutually beneficial power position between political and merchant elites.